My family history is well documented because both of my parents were avid genealogists. But they also cared greatly about preserving family heirlooms and passing them down. My most treasured heirlooms are three quilts that were made for my great-great-grandmother, Sarah Ann Moon.
She was born in 1858 in Lineville, Alabama, and married to William D. Haynes Jr. in 1876. Their only child, Wade Hampton Haynes (b. 1877), was my great-grandfather. Sadly, Sarah Ann died at just nineteen years of age in 1878 when my great-grandfather was just ten months old.
The provenance chain of the quilts is a bit speculative, but my mother and I believe that her mother and grandmother most likely made the quilts during the Civil War to be set aside for Sarah Ann’s wedding trousseau. The quilts are in excellent condition and have hardly been used. Once Sarah Ann died, we believe her things were packed up and set aside for her son to have when he got married, which was not until 1903.
When he died in 1959, my father received the few household items that belonged to Sarah Ann, among them the three quilts, all variations of the star pattern, as well as a small tintype photo and a lock of her hair.
Cynthia Ann Haynes is a professor of English at Clemson University with research interests in rhetoric, composition, computer game studies, and critical theory. She’s the author of The Homesick Phone Book: Addressing Rhetoric in the Age of Perpetual Conflict.
Photography by Jan Holmevik.
